


Seeing is believing

by Capoccino



Series: Red straw of fate [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And Usopp is The Leader of That Movement, Angst and Humor, BAMF Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates, BAMF Usopp, Canon-Typical Violence, Characters being OP in OP, Drabble, FOR ALL ARCS, Found Family, Gen, Gen Fic, Haki (One Piece), Haki lore, Haki user Usopp, I mean its Usopp, Insomnia, Loyalty, Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates As Family, One Piece Spoilers, Pairings If You Squint, Sanji Is Not A Vinsmoke, Self-Esteem Issues, Semi-Drabble format, Spoilers, Straw Hat Shenanigans, Suicidal Character(s), The rating is MATURE because these are PIRATES i’m writing about, Uhm, Untrained Haki, Usopp POV, Usopp would really like to get through ONE island visit without overthrowing a shady organisation, Usopp-centric (One Piece), how tf are any of their dreams gonna come true if they’re all throwing their lives away, in the most unconventional ways and unconventional uses, its the strawhats, it’s mostly subconscious, lowkey, nothing is chronological, pffft, seer!Usopp, the strawhats have all tapped into haki pre-timeskip, theyd all die for each other, which is groovy and not so groovy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:22:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21865162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capoccino/pseuds/Capoccino
Summary: Haki is, essentially, the life-force of all living things. Very rarely are people born aware of its existence, and averagely, most people aren’t. On the even rarer occasion, some can become “aware” at the tender age of six through prophetic dreams of straw hats and too-sunny smiles.The “even rarer occasion” in this case, is a unique one concerning a young boy called Usopp.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Usopp, Mugiwara Kaizoku ︳Strawhat Pirates & Usopp, Sanji & Usopp, Usopp & Vinsmoke Sanji
Series: Red straw of fate [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589065
Comments: 5
Kudos: 62





	Seeing is believing

**Author's Note:**

> Uhm. I’m not sorry for anything. No wait. My grammar which is really bad and if anyone wants to beta then plz help me. 
> 
> Characters are probably OOC so.. fun. It’s not majorly AU but having a semi-seerish Usopp is obviously gonna change some things. Mainly the amount of injuries he gets. 
> 
> Get ready for some strawhat feels woohoo. I would die for this gang no lie.
> 
> Enjoy and happy new year.

Usopp is six when his mom dies. It’s... upsetting, and for such a young child it’s as if his whole world has come crashing down.

“I’m sorry,” the doctor says but that’s not what Usopp wants to hear right now. What he _does_ want, is for his mom to wake up and call his name, even if it’s to scold him for lying. 

Except there’s nothing but silence.

His mom lays there on her bed—dead—and Usopp _knows_ what that means. She isn’t coming back, isn’t going to suddenly wake up and say _“good morning, my Usopp-kun!”_ and it hurts—more than anything in the world. And he says as much to the doctor packing away his equipment.

The elderly man pauses. “Where?” He says, “point it out to me.”

“... don’t know,” Usopp mumbles through his tears and snot. He rubs his nose on his forearm and stares up at the man with swollen eyes. “Everywhere?”

The doctor shares a glance with his neighbour. She’d been looking after his mother that day when he’d gone to search for seashells to hang above her bed. “Everywhere? Usopp-kun, please don’t lie at a time like this and tell me where it hurts properly.”

Usopp blinks, palm hovering over his chest where the pain was most prominent. He wasn’t lying.

His neighbour sighs and brushes a calloused hand over his head. “Come stay at my house,” she offers, and spares a look to the covered body on the only bed in the room. “While your house is... being cleaned,” she clarifies, smile strained as she stares down at him with a kind gaze he knows is only because she’s sympathising with him. 

It’s not dirty, he wants to say, clenches his fists and then thinks; _I want to stay._

But Usopp is six and there’s a dead woman in his home. He wants her to be alive, just like he wants his father to come home; but they’re the kind of wishes that just don’t come true, and for as much of a liar that he is—that is a truth he knows.

“Ok,” he says instead, “I’ll come with you.”

By the time he takes a hesitant step out the front door—he doesn’t hurt as much. The headache is still there and his heart is as stuffy as his nose, except he can’t blow that and—

Usopp is six when his mom dies. It’s also when he’s at this age that he first dreams of a straw hat.

* * *

_The ribbon on the hat is red. It’s the same bright shade as the boys top and Usopp stares._

_He’s smiling; the boy. It’s a thing of wonders shoved on a face too kind to have eyes that intense and Usopp thinks: How? How can you smile as if the world owes you nothing?_

_He doesn’t know that the question he never asks is the wrong one, doesn’t even understand the words that jumble around his head - but Usopp knows he’s sad and that’s already too much._

_“Ne,” the boy filled with sunshine calls. “Smile, Usopp!” He says but doesn’t demand. “We’re nearly at Fishman island! Imagine the amount of meat—”_

_The young man is already trailing off on a rant about ‘takoyaki-this, Surume-that’ and ‘Sanji, where’re those cheese crackers—Zoro! You ate them all!! GUM GUM PISTOL-’_

Usopp wakes with a cry on his lip but he doesn’t know why. He’s still sad, still only six—and that’s ok. Because Usopp knows that when he grows up he’ll no longer be sad and alone. 

_Nakama,_ the boy thinks in sheer delight as he sits in a bed too big and too cold than what he’s used to.

* * *

Migraines, the doctor explained when Usopp was seven and the headache he first got at the sight of his mother’s death worsens.

For the first time in his life Usopp thinks he’s wrong.

He’s eight and doesn’t—couldn’t—know as much as the man whose hair has greyed does, but the... migraines, don’t explain the dreams he has following them, or the fact that he sometimes sees ships on the horizon days before they dock.

“Pirates!” He shouts, even when he’s not sure they are. There’s a ship coming in that he doesn’t recognise and the villagers need to be prepared—just in case. “Pirates are coming!”

He runs down the weathered path, stumbling due to the pain in his head and strain in his eyes. He needs to warn them because nobody else can see what he does. So Usopp runs and stumbles but he _gets back up._

“Pirates,” he breathes, blinking tears away as he stares at the tightly closed doors of his neighbours.

When the ship docks two days later, it’s only a shipment full of supplies. But that’s alright. Everyone is safe, and besides; Usopp will one day be a brave warrior of the sea. It matters not if the people of Syrup village call him a liar. 

He knows who and what he is—what he will be—and _that’s_ all that matters.


End file.
